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GRAND SLAM CHAMPS TEAM MOUAT WIN FIRST GAME AT WORLD PLAY-OFFS

Posted on 3 March 2018

Boost National Champions Team Mouat who won the Scottish Championships at Perth’s Dewars Centre two weeks ago, continued their winning form into the first of the world play-off matches at the same venue, beating the Olympians Team Smith 9-4.

The best of three format decider, that will determine which team represents Scotland at the forthcoming World Championships, saw Bruce Mouat’s team take control of the opening game early on. Securing a two at the first and a steal of three at the second put them firmly in the driving seat and from there Mouat’s men claimed a further single at the fourth, to lead 6-0. The Olympic team rallied to secure a two before the fifth end break, however skip Kyle Smith conceded that the margin proved to be difficult to come back from.

“We’ve had a few days at home to recover, so we were feeling fine coming into that game, but I missed a couple of shots in the first two ends and all of a sudden you’re five nil down and it’s a long way to go. I think we were feeling good, but you don’t give yourself much of a chance when you do that early on in the game. They were good today and tomorrow’s another day thankfully for us.

“Sadly, we didn’t play well enough today, but we’ve got another chance tomorrow. It’s all to play for still,” said Smith.

Skip Bruce Mouat, whose team was unbeaten throughout the national championships, was pleased with his rink’s ongoing dominant form today.

“We were totally up for it and we wanted to come out firing like we had at the Scottish,” he said.

“The mentality the guys and I have, we don’t ever get ahead of ourselves. We know each game is just as important as the next, so we’re just going to keep the same routines, try to keep the pressure on them and see if we can win it in two games.”

Team Mouat and Team Smith will play their second game tomorrow morning at 10.00am, whilst National Champions Team Fleming take on the Olympians Team Muirhead at 6pm tonight.

British Curling Photos: Perthshire Picture Agency - Graeme Hart.

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